Self-Dihua

After that nauseating "dinner" incident, the Players had completely lost their appetites. They lay scattered in twos and threes on relatively clean patches of ground, staring overhead. There was no sky here—only a vast, cold, rust-covered metal dome. Countless pipes and cables tangled together like the veins and nerves of some colossal beast, blocking out the faint light from the upper hive and leaving behind only eternal gloom.

The trench was steeped in oppressive silence. Every face was marked by exhaustion and nausea.

At last, one Player spoke weakly, breaking the silence. "Playing this game... is torture for both body and soul."

His words were like a stone cast into stagnant water, instantly stirring ripples.

"Exactly..." The other Players nodded in heartfelt agreement. One covered his eyes with an arm, his voice trembling slightly. "After this closed beta, I don't think I'll ever touch another war game for the rest of my life."

"Same here," another grumbled indignantly. "Those developers better hope I never find their address, or I'll go meet them offline and have a little talk about life!"

Amid the chorus of complaints, Ruan Wenbo looked thoughtful. Gazing at the oppressive metal vault overhead, he slowly said, "Maybe... this was the developers' intention? Maybe they were trying to make an anti-war game?"

"Are you guys still going to play?" another Player asked, sounding weak. "I probably won't play anymore. I feel like from now on, whenever I hear words like 'fighting' or 'war,' I'll... I'll feel sick..."

"No way, man. PTSD already?" the Player beside him said in surprise, before sighing as well. "Though... I probably won't play after this either..."

"The developers might really be going for a This War of Mine kind of approach," one Player agreed. "I have to admit, they succeeded. I won't be playing war games anymore either, including this one."

An air of quitting the game spread through the group. However, Ruan Wenbo shook his head and said firmly, "I'm still planning to keep playing. At the very least, I need to experience the full story. I'm a game UP master, after all. If I don't experience the whole thing, I have no right to comment on it."

"A game UP master? No wonder your name sounded so familiar!" As soon as he finished speaking, a Player beside him slapped his thigh and sat up. "Dr. Ruan, right? I've watched your videos! I even follow you! Boss, if you're going to keep playing, then I'll keep playing too! Can I add you as a friend? We can play together later!"

Ruan Wenbo had not expected to run into a fan here, and he readily agreed. "Of course. We're all closed beta Players. It's fate."

As he spoke, he skillfully opened his data panel, preparing to add the other Player. Then he froze.

"Uh... where do you add friends in this game?" He searched through the bare-bones UI. "Wait, does this game... even have a friend-adding function?"

The Player who had asked to add him searched through his own panel as well, but eventually gave up in defeat. "It really doesn't seem to have one. This is way too underdeveloped! When we get out, we have to report this to the officials. They absolutely need to add it!"

Just then, Ruan Wenbo seemed to think of something and fell into thought. Suddenly, he spoke. "Don't you think this is strange?"

Everyone looked at him.

"Based on our earlier deductions, the developers are pursuing extreme realism and... uh, torment," Ruan Wenbo analyzed. "But would they really make us sit here doing nothing for several hours? That doesn't fit their style."

He sat up, his expression turning serious. "Think about it. Ever since we entered the game, every instance of torment has had 'content.' The bumpy troop carrier was meant to let us experience what soldiers actually went through on the battlefield. The chaotic battlefield was meant to make us feel the brutality of war. That pot... that pot of soup was meant to make us understand the dark nature of this universe. All of it was carefully designed 'content' meant to deliver a powerful emotional impact."

"But waiting around doing nothing for several hours—what is that? That's boredom, not torment. In a game, boredom is more deadly than pain. Given the level this development team has shown, I don't think they'd make such a low-level mistake."

Within the indescribable dimension of the Warp, Bit, God of Information, listened to Ruan Wenbo's analysis with great interest. A ripple almost akin to astonishment stirred within His consciousness. This "Dr. Ruan" had such a clear chain of logic and such rigorous deductions that, if Bit had not been certain He had never interfered with the Players' specific thoughts from beginning to end, He might have been convinced that all of this truly had been a script He had arranged in advance.

Ruan Wenbo's words were like a shot of adrenaline, rousing the despondent Players. Thinking it over carefully, they realized it really did make sense. That bastard developer might be inhuman, but when it came to "how to torment Players," he had at least been creative and substantial so far. This definitely was not just an idle AFK punishment.

"Dr. Ruan is right!" A Player slapped his thigh. "This definitely isn't just rest time. It has to be the calm before the storm! That bastard developer must be cooking up something nasty!"

"Then, Doctor," another immediately pressed, "how do you think that bastard developer plans to torment us next?"

Ruan Wenbo thought carefully, replaying every detail since they had logged in. Then, as if he had recalled a crucial point, his eyes lit up. "Do you remember what the Commissar said to us at the beginning?"

The Players were all confused. "The Commissar said quite a lot. Which line do you mean?"

Ruan Wenbo practically reenacted Commissar Walter's tone, which had carried both faint encouragement and cruel reality. "If you're lucky, you might even pick up a finely crafted Bolter!"

He pointed at the pile of corpses in the distance, which still gave off a foul stench, his voice brimming with confidence. "That was a hint from the developers! A hidden quest clue!"

"We found Lasguns in the corpse pile earlier, which proves that 'scavenging' is at least one of this game's mechanics! The Commissar didn't say that casually—he was telling us there was something even better in there!" The more Ruan Wenbo spoke, the more excited he became. "There are still good things waiting for us to find!"

The Players were all persuaded by Ruan Wenbo's confident, well-reasoned words. Fear and nausea were replaced by a more primal desire belonging to Players—the longing for better equipment. The people who had looked utterly dead inside moments ago now had greedy light shining in their eyes.

One of them suddenly understood and could not help exclaiming, "Damn! After killing the monsters, there's even a looting phase. This developer really knows how to stitch mechanics together!"

Bit smiled faintly within the Warp. "You're all so good at Self-Dihua that it would seem unreasonable if I didn't play along."

He lightly stirred information and energy. "In that case, I'll give my adorable Players something tasty... After all, a game does need some positive feedback. Consider it a reward for helping me with the closed beta."